Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design

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After fifteen years, 4,000 clients and authorship of my own career counseling program, this is simply the best book in its field that I have ever seen! I have reviewed almost all career counseling books, programs and strategies available. None is better than Zen and the Art of Making a Living." Zen and the Art of Making a Living is one hell of a book. I [feel] that [it] really challenges What Color Is Your Parachute? for leadership in the career field. Nice Job!" The most informative and helpful sections are the exercises that call for realistic self-analysis. Boldt recognizes that you can't just read the book and expect the perfect job to fall in your lap. Therefore, he makes the reader responsible for the job search by asking pointed questions and plenty of space for answers. This helps you contemplate everything from transition strategies to the "polygamous" life work trajectory of multiple ongoing careers. The reader, in dissecting his or her own written answers, achieves the type of self therapy only the most talented job counselors can offer. Boldt's exercises also leave you in control of your own analysis. This book helped me think about what it is that I truly do -- I am a consultant at heart - I love looking at problems, giving advice, and figuring out how to fix things.

In today's job market, the question has become not Can I find a job? but Can I find a job I like? Laurence G. Boldt answers this question with a resounding yes in Zen and the Art of Making a Living: A Practical Guide to Creative Career Design.When it comes to the fundamentals of vocational guidance (determining what to do), nothing significant has changed since this book was first written. Indeed, nothing essential has changed in the more than two thousand years since Aristotle wrote, “Where your talent and the needs of the world cross, there lies your vocation.” Were he alive today and whispering in your ear, Aristotle could give no more relevant or timely advice. Over seven hundred years ago, the Sufi poet Rumi wrote, “Everyone has been made for some particular work and the desire for that work has been placed in every heart.” This too is every bit as relevant today as it was the day it was first written. In a sense, either of these formulations (Rumi’s or Aristotle’s) provides everything you need to identify your vocation or life’s work.

This is far more than a "how to" discussion, though. While the reader will discover how to get on the mailing list for federal job opportunities and how to write grant proposals for funding a nonprofit organization, he or she also will be treated to a beautiful essay explaining the Zen view that everyone is talented and knowledgeable. The book is organized as a play with sections denoting "prologue", acts and scenes within acts. The major acts include: (1) Act 1: The Quest for Life's Work, (2) Act II: The Game of Life's Work, (3) Act III: The Battle for Life's Work and Act IV: The School of Life's Work. Act I is to create and define the tapestry of one's life and shape it actively and creatively- not based on societal convention but based on joy, service to mankind and a hero's spirit. Act I involves vision questing, clarifying values, pointing to purpose, targeting talents and marking mission objectives. Act II is identifying your new career or work. It involves reality testing, careful evaluation and visualization. Act III involves implementing your strategy to achieve your life's work: "taking it to the street", marketing strategies, "sailing the entrepreneurship", "wielding the free lance", looking at non-profit opportunities or landing the right job "street smarts". Act IV is involved with getting there, transitional strategies, training skills, self image, enlisting support and finally loving what you do til you are doing what you love. This book is highly recommended and should have a transforming and beneficial effect on your life. Whatever gets you really turned on, enough to work for with dedication, sacrifice, and excellence, has the quality of this blissful, original nature in it, and is moving you toward your life's work." You already assume what Laurence G. Boldt has to say and expect from you! Your dedication, your self-respect, and your belief to make that final push into happiness. The Zen state is all about that, bliss and everlasting peace.With Laurence Boldt's guidance, we not only set a firm foot on the bridge between East and West, but we traverse it with a strong, confident stride. William Shakespeare once wrote, "Our doubts are traitors and make us lose the good we oft might win by fearing to attempt." Fear of falling short often prevents people from seeking their true calling. If we were to recast Rumi’s maxim as a question, we might come up with something like, What was I born to do? or, What does my heart tell me to do? If we were to reframe Aristotle’s dictum, we might get, Where (or what) is the nexus between my talents and the needs of the world? or, Where can I find a mix of passion and purpose, of joy and meaning? Now, I’ve found that most people have a difficult time answering any of these questions straightaway. On the other hand, if you ask folks a targeted series of more manageable questions, you find that many move definitely (though at first almost imperceptibly) toward an answer to the larger questions. Thousands of so-called ordinary people are every day involved in heroic service to their fellow man. Most of this service goes unrecognized and unnoticed by the wider public because it does not fit with the conventional view of what is valuable or important."